Aarushi - Beyond Reasonable Doubt

In 2008, Aarushi Talwar, a 14-year-old schoolgirl is found murdered in her bedroom. A day later, the body of the prime suspect - the family’s 45-year-old Nepalese help - is discovered on the terrace of the same flat. Who wanted them dead and why?

5 ½ years later, a Trial Court sentences Aarushi’s parents to life imprisonment. It becomes one of India’s most controversial verdicts.

"Aarushi – Beyond Reasonable Doubt" is a 4-part documentary series that reopens the Aarushi Case diaries to separate fact from fiction. The murders. The motive. The media. The murder weapon. The blood on the stairs.

The series draws on the voices of investigators, lawyers, family and friends, crucial witnesses, and journalists who give their versions of truth.

It pitches the prosecution against the defence, and the believers against the skeptics. Produced in over more than one year, what emerges is a fascinating story of loss, anger, rivalry, helplessness, justice and retribution.

The series was broadcast as a four-part episodic documentary on CNA and is available on their website. It won Bronze for Best Investigative Report at the New York Festivals 2017.

Dr Dinesh Talwar

The murder of a young girl and her male house help becomes India’s biggest murder mystery. Suspicion swings from other domestic helpers to unknown outsiders, and stops at the parents. Were they framed? Or did they really kill their only child?

 
JAVEED AHMED EX-JOINT DIRECTOR CBI.jpg

Five years, four suspects, three investigative teams, numerous theories and many unresolved questions later, a Trial Court finally arrives at a verdict on the Aarushi-Hemraj murders. What will be the end to India’s biggest murder mystery?

 
KHUMKALA - 2.jpg

The murder of a young girl and her male house help becomes India’s biggest murder mystery. Suspicion swings from other domestic helpers to unknown outsiders, and stops at the parents. Were they framed? Or did they really kill their only child?

 
SHER BAHADUR THADARAI - KRISHNA'S BROTHER.jpg

The Talwars are serving a life sentence for the double murder of their daughter and house-help. As they appeal against their conviction in the High Court, the producers of this documentary track down former suspects, and speak with international experts. What will they find?

 

The Contributors

Director’s Notes

Why did we make this documentary series? 

Although the Aarushi-Hemraj case had inspired a mainstream feature film, a bestseller and several years of print and tv archive in India, no one had surprisingly made a documentary on it, one that explored all facets of the case. Also, as we began our research, we felt that people's belief on who killed Aarushi and Hemraj, was often based on perception, their own life experiences & speculation, but rarely on facts. It was hard to find someone willingly to study the evidence with an open mind.

We had to start from scratch, be neutral and open to all sides of the argument. We wanted to take each piece of evidence to its logical, scientific conclusion. We didn’t know where the evidence would take us, but it was important for us to be objective.

Research approach

We relied extensively on all court documents presented in the Trial Court and the High Court, apart from the Closure Report filed by the Federal Investigators, the Protest Petition filed by the Appellants, and the earlier appeals at the High Court and Supreme Court. We also studied statements to the Police and the Federal Investigators, court testimonies of prosecution & defence witnesses, forensic reports of all the evidence - basically every bit of documentary evidence-on-record.

Contributors

We also extensively spoke to several key characters involved in the case - investigators, lawyers, forensic experts, journalists, observers, and ofcourse family members and friends of the victims and suspects. Apart from this, we also went through print and television media's coverage of the case.  

To maintain objectivity, we also got in touch with international crime scene investigators and forensic scientists, such as a blood spatter analyst from Cambridge, a forensic pathologist from London, a former Scotland Yard deception detection analyst, and several others in US and Singapore. They reviewed the evidence-on-record, then generated a report in a completely honorary capacity, and this was then featured in our documentary. 

We also tried to reach out to some of the former suspects in Nepal, and this strongly impacts the narrative.   

Treatment

As this was a blind case, we definitely wanted to stay away from dramatic recreations / docu-drama. What we did instead, was get a lot of with atmospheric shots and music, so that the focus would be on the voices in the film. 

 All women's team

 Interestingly, behind-the-scenes, we have all women's core creative team - Mok Choy Lin and Huang Weixian, commissioning editors, Channel NewsAsia, Singapore; Dipti Chadha (Creative Producer), Anupama Chabukswar (Editor), and then there's me as Executive Producer and Creative Director.   

I think our all women's team brought sensitivity to the storytelling. Honestly, as a mother of a 4 year old daughter, this was a tough case, because much as we would like to remain stoic while dealing with a story, some things truly break your heart. Yes, as true-crime film makers, we regularly deal with a lot of blood and gore, but this was a case where it was almost impossible to look at Aarushi's photographs or the crime scene photos without being affected by it - it drained us emotionally. 

Reviews

“Often called contemporary India’s biggest murder mystery, the Aarushi-Hemraj murder case has been extensively covered, written about, filmed and discussed to the point that the facts of the case are hard to distinguish from folklore and hotly-debated beliefs. In this context, the biggest triumph of ‘Arushi — Beyond Reasonable Doubt’ is its objectivity.”

- The Quint

“The lawyers, investigators, sympathisers, and victims in Biswas's film reveal, in equal measure, their valid points, and prejudices. The filmmakers independently verify assertions - right from body language, to the choice of the murder weapon - with proven experts. They stick to basic journalism as well, allowing every possible theory the space it deserves.”

- Mayank Shekhar, Mid-day 

"From the opening title to the last analysis. A tale oft told, but the angles startlingly different."

— Pratima Rao, Mission Director and Head, Biocon Foundation

“Aarushi - Beyond Reasonable Doubt: Finally, an investigative documentary on the twin murders... The film looks at facts in a pool of opinions and shows us Aarushi as she lived and breathed.... Other than making for a gripping film, what the documentary also does is give a glimpse into the lives of the victims, their families and even some of the accused, real people who are more than just characters in a movie or a book.”

- The News Minute

"I watched this documentary and was sniffling through the night for a little girl I never knew, a man - a domestic servant - who died far away from home and parents who lived through their worst nightmare! The narrative was objective, well-told and beautifully presented but I think what elevated it for me was how you showed us the humanity behind the headlines. The documentary humanized all of them and made me want to continue to watch even though it was difficult because of the subject. The story and the people involved stay with you long after you're done watching."

— Vineeta Rao, New Zealand

"Of all of them (Bollywood Feature film and Book), the visual story-telling that stands out instantly, and shakes you up to the core, has got to be Mayurica Biswas's documentary, Beyond Reasonable Doubt. The four-part series (each episode of about 50 minutes), commissioned by Singapore's Channel News Asia, dropped on its official site last week. While Biswas enjoys the benefit of a lot of research that's already in public domain, it's the immediacy of the images - putting real faces and voices to actual names in the case - that hits you right away, like nothing else can."

- Mayank Shekhar, Mid-day

"Got a chance to see the documentary 'Aarushi - Beyond Reasonable Doubt'. The macabre killing of a 14 and a 45 year old has been haunting us since 2008. Well researched, the documentary goes through the events step by step taking the viewers along - with empathy but without bias. The flow is crisp yet fluid. And at the end it leaves a perspective for viewers to make their own inferences."

— Sattam Dasgupta, Bangalore, India

Credits

 

Executive Producer | Creative Director

Mayurica Biswas

 

Graphics

Pachisframe

Creative Producer

Dipti Chadha

 

Additional Camera

Nitin Chopra | Ken Clay | Gajendra Kumar | Indrajeet Kumar | Jon Stow

Directors of Photography

Gurvinder Singh | Karan Thapliyal

 

Assistant Producers

Akhil Giri | Deepti Murali | James Roy

Line Producers

Pradeep Bashyal [Nepal] | Jonathan Elliot [London] | Shagun Agrawal [Delhi]

 

Creative Consultant

Joshua Whitehead

Sound Recordists

Amit Singh | Barun Dev | Parvesh Singh

 

Legal Consultant

Zeba Khair

 

Forensic Consultants

Dr TD Dogra | Dr SL Vaya | Dr RK Sharma | The Forensic Experts Group, Singapore | Ralph R Ristenbatt III | Dr Reena Roy

Music

Audio Network

 

Special Thanks

Satyaketu Singh | Nalini Singh | Deepak Adhikari | Neeraj Chauhan | Swastika Mehta | Prangshu Mishra | Tashi Tobgyal | Mikma Lepcha | Satish Tamta | Anupam Srivastava | Rahul Bidappa

FOR CHANNEL NEWSASIA

Assistant Producer

Sara Ann-Yumi R

 

FOR CHANNEL NEWSASIA

Commissioning Editors & Executive Producers

Mok Choy Lin | Huang Weixian